We have to face it, global warming isn’t just a distant threat for our children’s children to worry about. It’s here and accelerating. Despite vague (half-hearted at best) efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the climate is shifting already. That means that climate adaptation, alongside mitigation, is now absolutely essential.
Take May 2025 for example. It is now officially the second-warmest May globally, 0.53 °C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.4 °C above pre-industrial levels. Fires erupted on Chios, Greece, forcing village evacuations and emergency responses, reminding us (once again) that fire season now runs all year long. All across Europe – Iceland, Italy, Spain, and France saw heatwave records break one after another.
On 24 January 2025, Storm Éowyn unleashed record-breaking winds (gusts up to 184 km/h), downing trees, cancelling flights, and leaving nearly one-third of homes without power. Tragically, a man died when a fallen tree struck his vehicle.
Energy infrastructure struggled to cope with the damages done: 39,000 homes remained powerless ten days later; even after eleven days, hundreds were still offline. My home? My office? Yup – caught right in the chaos. We spent nearly two weeks without power. That meant:
It became very clear, very quickly: Ireland was not ready. Not even close. Storm Éowyn exposed major gaps (lessons learned the hard way:
Adaptation plans must incorporate these lessons.
We hear a lot about climate mitigation which aims at long term climate security. Cutting emissions is essential to limit global warming, reduce extreme event frequency, and avoid surpassing critical climate tipping points.
But climate adaptation is what will keep us afloat today (literally). Adaptation seeks immediate resilience.
Mitigation = prevention
Adaptation = preparation
With extreme natural events already at our doorstep, governments and communities need to:
Storm Éowyn made that clear: even countries with robust systems can fail when extremes bite hard. Climate change doesn’t care how advanced your economy is, if your systems aren’t built to withstand the extremes, they’ll break.
The past quarter has thrown everything at us. We’ve seen extreme heatwaves, floods, cyclones, wildfires across every inhabited continent. We must continue reducing emissions to curb long‑term warming. Simultaneously, climate adaptation, especially for emergency response and infrastructure resilience, is no longer optional; it’s essential.
Storm Éowyn was a wake-up call: resilience isn't theoretical, it’s literal. As we design future communities, energy systems, and disaster plans, we must treat them as climate‑ready from the ground up, not as optional upgrades.
Let’s embrace both transitions: to a low-carbon future and to one where communities can bounce back stronger when the unexpected arrives.
Our Sustainability Reporting Programme helps organisations like yours measure what matters, report without the jargon, and show real climate leadership — not just in strategy decks, but in action.
Let’s report like the future depends on it — because, well, it kind of does.
💚 FSG Team
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